Telmap Goes Beyond GPS Navigation with Release of Navigator 4.5

ORLANDO, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Wireless Enterprise Symposium (WES) 2008 — Telmap, the world leader in mobile location solutions, today unveiled Telmap Navigator 4.5, introducing a whole new level of personal mobility into mobile navigation. Telmap Navigator for the first time introduces features and functions that allow the user to experience beyond GPS navigation. These features include the use of cell data location when GPS is not available, better mapping functions, integration of public transport data, dynamic content deck empowering operators to dynamically offer mobile content, a new and improved traffic feature, and the release of APIs for both the Telmap Andromeda platform as well as the Telmap navigation application, for integration with 3rd party application providers.

“Knowing how to get from point A to B coupled with the use of location services on a mobile device, makes our solution an even more powerful tool for the end user,” said Oren Nissim, CEO of Telmap. “By introducing features like cell data positioning and real-time public transportation routing, we are allowing users to experience beyond GPS navigation and the traditional use of navigation in the car. At Telmap, we are committed to providing more and more useful features and content that expands the possibilities for using the application all the time – whether driving a car, taking a train or walking.”

Beyond GPS navigation: The best route possible

Going beyond GPS navigation, combining cell location data with GPS positioning provides a more powerful tool for the end user and allows them to ‘see’ where they are even inside buildings and in urban canyons. While the technology itself is not new, the combination between Cell ID and GPS positioning provides a consistent location to the user and also allows operators to utilize their network assets to give the user a better experience.
With the integration of public transport data, Telmap is the first supplier of personal mobile location services that delivers true multi-modal navigation. Public transportation data is now integrated onto the data systems that feed Telmap’s powerful Andromeda platform for mapping and route calculation services. With this data, Telmap’s new ‘Walk & Ride’ gives users several options to get from A to B and routes that are visible to the user include choices with multiple combinations of buses, trains, subways, as well as walking or driving routes. Once the user has selected a preferred method of transportation, directions are given in clear map format with voice instructions powered by Telmap’s new text-to-speech engine that is now available in North America and the EMEA region.

Telmap includes an advanced traffic feature in Navigator 4.5 that allows users to view several optional routes based on traffic conditions, along with the estimated travel time for each option presented. Nissim continued, “It is clear to us that up-to-the-minute traffic data is very useful for people who are traveling their regular routes, even more than people who are on vacation or a business trip. By providing options based on current traffic data, we are giving users who regularly drive these routes a view into the current conditions and are allowing them to choose an alternative, giving them more control and a higher level of satisfaction from their mobile navigator.”

New Navigator also introduces Telmap’s Dynamic Content Deck that empowers mobile operators to quickly, easily and economically provide and manage mobile content to their subscribers. Using a server-based approach to dynamically manage content improves individualized features in 4.5 such as mobile search, mapping and routing that includes customized content like points of interest, festivals and events, parking space availability, and weather. This new feature gives carriers unlimited flexibility in determining what content to deliver, when to launch content, and how to display the data so that the consumer now has access to the richest and most up-to-date content available.

Beginning with Navigator 4.5, Telmap is opening up the mobile navigation platform, making the Telmap Andromeda platform API and Telmap Navigator API available for 3rd party developers. Telmap’s commercial API Program is immediately available to technology providers, wireless carriers and developers. For more information about access to the open APIs and full capabilities, visit the Developer Zone at www.telmap.com.